兼愛
by Crimson Flight
Summary: Minoru wanted a normal high school life. But a chance encounter changed all that, dropping him into a side of Suuyama City that he never knew. With only a strange power known as "Persona" as his guide, he and his companions must protect their home from "Shadows", monsters that preyed on the vulnerable, and ferret out the truth behind the dark underworld beneath them ... [OC]


**April 1, 2014**

" _Now departing Noriaki Station. Please stay clear of the gap. Now departing Noriaki Station …"_

If the loud whistle of the train behind him hadn't been a good enough clue, then the click-clack of the turnstile as he stepped out of the station (ICOCA drained of 200 yen) and onto the street was all he needed to know that he was in Noriaki again. And the sight that awaited him was nothing less than intimately familiar. Despite the passage of time, nothing about the suburb appeared to have changed in any way, as if the gods had simply plucked its image directly from his memories and plastered it over his surroundings.

The raven-haired youth gracelessly reached up to loosen his scarlet tie, hoping to relieve his neck of its suddenly discomforting weight.

If he was honest, he wasn't entirely uncertain that they hadn't.

And nothing he saw on his way towards Noriaki North High was willing to dissuade him of that assumption. As he walked past the convenience stores and aging brick condominiums that lined the main road, it didn't feel like he had been gone for years. Everything around him was _exactly_ the same as he remembered.

The franchised cram school sitting above a western-style family restaurant a mere block away from the train station. He remembered it. The abandoned lot at the end of the main road – across from the vet's with the tracks behind it – and its cracking, grey concrete that was still overgrown with dying weeds. He remembered it. The park that he and so many other students needed to pass through as they journeyed to school, on this morning filled with the exhausted groans of teenagers rather than the bright laughter of joyful, playing children. A lush forest of merriment transformed into a swamp of regret.

It was, unfortunately, just as he remembered it.

He shook his head, trying to push the negativity to the back of his mind. He shouldn't have been too surprised by it all. Noriaki was supposed to be a residential zone, after all, but even though he knew intellectually that the district his school was part of was pretty unlikely to have changed drastically within the span of so few years, Minoru Matsuoka couldn't help but feel discomforted by how _closely_ everything he'd seen today matched those vivid recollections.

Not that he had much room to complain. It had been his own decision to attend school on this side of town, after all. Even when his parents had asked him if he really wanted to come back here, he'd still stuck to it. And here he was, a bonafide high schooler in a fresh white dress shirt, black slacks and a pair of cream sneakers that had seen a few years. Count in the uncomfortable necktie, the navy-blue blazer that didn't yet feel right and the glossy bronze badge that he kept worrying would fall off his lapel, and Minoru was the very picture of a Noriaki North student. The result of the choice he'd pledged himself to. What was the American expression again? If he broke it, he had to buy it? Or was he using the expression wrong?

"I'll look it up later," the boy muttered to himself. It wasn't that important. Not when the final stretch for his journey to school was right ahead of him. Just a climb up a steep hillside, and then his high school life would begin.

Still, as much as he'd tried to ignore the awkward discomfort that had plagued him since he left the train station, the feelings were still there, poking and prodding from the deep recesses of his mind. So, when the steel gates of Noriaki North came into view as he trudged to the top of the very high hill, he felt sheer relief. Anything to distract him from those unsettling twinges, even if that thing was a school. It wasn't even a particularly interesting looking school either, because if Minoru had to describe it in one word, he'd honestly just settle for "school".

Noriaki North was a pretty conventional example of one, after all. The grounds lying beyond the gates looked smaller than average at first glance, but quite a bit of space was also being taken up by a tall grey building that seemed to loom over the scenery. Everything was made from brick and steel. An aesthetic that looked like it'd been built in the 80s. Exactly as seen on television.

That wasn't him denigrating it as a bad school or anything. If it was, he wouldn't have come in the first place, nor would there have been so many other students ambling in a throng through the massive green gates alongside him for their first day of the new school year. A memory of the school orientation brochure bubbled to the forefront of his mind. He recalled reading something about how Noriaki North's enrolments had been on the increase over the last few years, possibly related to its growing prestige. It was probably just, to use the American expression, them tooting their own horn, but it did explain why the crowd of youths in navy-blue uniforms was pretty large.

And large enough for him to nearly get lost in! Being squeezed from all sides as he tried to find his way around, Minoru couldn't help but think that getting to the assembly hall of the tall school building for the opening ceremony was almost like going to a baseball game. Even if the number of likeminded students probably paled compared to the tens of thousands that would rock up for a Tigers-Giants showdown (their disappointment with regards to Sunday's atrocity definitely paled though), dealing with the crowd was still just way too much for him to handle, and the fact that so many of them were strangers didn't help. He thought he'd seen a few of his old classmates somewhere in the crowd, but there was no way he could've approached them before they were lost in the sea of unknown faces. There was just no opportunity for it, not when they were all being herded into the hall.

Despite how packed to the brim it was, Minoru suddenly felt quite alone.

Fortunately for his mood, the opening ceremony was not a lengthy affair. That saved him for the uncomfortable experience of standing up for a long time, alone, surrounded by strangers whose shared apathy for the entire thing was palpable. The boy to his right, for one, was falling asleep on his feet as the headmistress droned on from her raised platform at the front of the hall. Minoru couldn't blame him. There hadn't actually been much said, and he'd only been half-heartedly listening to the speech himself after he realised that it was mostly just fluff. Greetings to new students like him. Well-wishes for the new year. Reminders not to slack off in their studies. Nothing attention-grabbing or anything.

Funny how that turned out. Even if it was still morning, he assumed that his first day would start off more excitingly, but so far all he got was a short speech that left him more tired and isolated than inspired in any way. And with very little fanfare, everyone was dismissed so they could go to class. It was pretty anticlimactic. But given how little substance there was to it, he wasn't going to complain.

It meant that he didn't have to wait around for a boring speech to end. That he didn't have to consider stewing in his own thoughts a way to pass the time.

Instead of doing all that, he could just start looking for class 1-B.

Much to his displeasure, however, the first-year classrooms were located on the building's third floor, meaning that when he eventually managed to press through the mob of students and find the staircase, it was with audible discomfort that he trudged up the wooden steps. He was, to use the American expression, admittedly making a mountain out of a molehill, but the extra effort of climbing the storeys made the already-exhausting morning just a little bit worse. Minoru wasn't some lazy sloth or anything, but in his humble opinion, an elevator would have definitely made things a lot less difficult.

He reached the top of the staircase just in time to catch the tail-end of an argument. An argument taking place right in front of the final few steps to the third floor, obstructing his path. Well, that was already one difficulty that could've been avoided.

"- you're _out_. You hear me? Don't you even _dare_ come by the clubroom. I don't even want to ever see your face again!"

A tall girl had been trapped in front of the stairs by a (much) shorter trio of students, silently enduring the frustration being lobbed her way by the leader of the attackers, a girl with pigtails whose blazer had been tied around her waist.

Minoru looked around for a way out of the stairwell, eyes darting helplessly from side to side in search of even the smallest gap past the argument in progress. If he had a list of things he didn't want to get involved in right now, then a spat between strangers was quickly rising to the top of it. But his search wasn't bearing any fruit. There was no room for him to squeeze through, or at least not enough to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

"Maybe you should close your eyes, then," was the tall girl's remarkably calm response. Besides her height (which was admittedly around his), it was her hair that immediately drew Minoru's attention. The loose, shoulder-length locks were a far lighter shade of brown than the hair of the other girls, and in the light, he swore there was a tinge of red to it.

Said colour was also becoming increasingly prominent in the shouting girl's cheeks as her irritation grew. Minoru tried to keep his own exasperation in check. The taller one just _had_ to poke back and get a few of her own licks in, didn't she? Just had to keep blocking his path by egging things on. He wished he could be like all the other students he could see in the hallway behind the girls. They could ignore the argument and do their own thing. Not like him.

"Don't you get smart with me, _Choi_." The name, honorific missing, was delivered with an almost-snarl. The tall girl seemed to tense in response. "This is a warning. Listen to it for your own good."

The leader of the trio gave the evil eye once more, before whirling around with a huff, storming red-faced off into the hallway. Her lackeys were quickly to scurry after, leaving the tall girl standing alone in front of the stairs … alongside Minoru, who was suddenly feeling uncomfortably voyeuristic now that the argument had careened to a halt. Even if he hadn't wanted to witness their spat, it wasn't like he had much of a choice, being stuck on the staircase and all.

And he was still trapped.

"Unbelievable," the girl muttered under her breath, still ignorant of Minoru's presence. "Getting me out of the way on the goddamned first day?"

"That'd be great, yeah," Minoru couldn't help but interject. A surprised glower was immediately shot his way. It was sudden, intense. Almost frightening. He tried not to feel intimidated. Others were climbing up the stairs behind him as well, and with the sound of their footsteps growing louder and closer, he was willing to take his chances so that he could get by as quickly as possible. "Sorry mate, but uh, could you let me squeeze past?"

The intensity of the girl's glare lessened as she realised where she was. She instantly took a few steps back, giving him the freedom he'd been yearning for.

"Sorry," she said tersely. "I didn't mean to obstruct you."

Minoru brushed off her apology. "No worries," he replied, stepping past her and into the hallway. "It's no biggie."

Still, it was a relief no longer being cooped up behind an argument he really hadn't wanted to watch. Quickly leaving the girl behind, Minoru found that the remainder of his journey was far less dramatic. In fact, by the time he reached 1-B's classroom for the class orientation meeting, his encounter with those girls had already slipped completely from his mind.

Said meeting, once their teacher (a stony, middle-aged mathematician by the name of Shiyo) assigned them all a seat, started off with self-introductions. Minoru soon discovered that they were pretty much just like what he'd expected from all those high school TV dramas his mum kept watching when she was supposed to be working. Some of them started off with corny jokes, others went for the barebones approach and pretty much said nothing but their names (including him, although at least he mentioned what middle school he'd come from!), while a few unfortunately assumed that, to use the American expression, blowing smoke about themselves was actually interesting to their new classmates.

They weren't interesting.

Honestly, it was very standard fare, so he wasn't ashamed at all to admit that he was pretty much tuning them out entirely.

"- my hat will be in your care too."

However, the seeming non-sequitur immediately to his left broke Minoru out of his funk, his head jerking around to face the girl who had stood up from the desk. No, it wasn't because of the super weird declaration. That, he was already used to. It wasn't even because of how confidently and powerfully she'd said those words to a classroom of people who weren't really sure on how to react to such a thing besides with awkward giggling. He didn't need any of that. It was because he recognised her voice. And the baseball cap dangling from her hands.

"Kinda blind of you, Matsuoka-kun," said his middle school classmate and frequent lab partner, Kuzunoha, as she settled back down, familiar amber eyes gazing warmly at him. "Did three years in the same class mean nothing?"

"You weren't wearing a hat," he replied defensively, but it was a weak excuse and Kuzunoha knew it. Even if it was true that he really hadn't recognised her at all without headwear. "You always wear a hat."

"That's not allowed anymore," she huffed. One hand was playing with the locks of black hair at the top of her head, while the other placed her cap down on her desk. "The dress code doesn't let me."

"And you still came here?"

He was still finding it pretty unnerving. Sure, in the long run he'd probably get used to seeing her without anything on her head, but those three years of middle school had really cemented the concept of 'Kuzunoha' with 'wears a hat' into his mind. She'd even worn them into lab sessions back in middle school, even if in hindsight, that shouldn't have been allowed at all. Their teacher sure had, to use the American expression, dropped the ball on safety there.

"I only learned of it today," she said sheepishly. "I thought this place was supposed to be lax on uniform."

How did she take that as a given all the way to this point without even making sure to first check if the school allowed hats? That was just uncharacteristically irresponsible of her! Minoru already had the retort ready on the tip of his tongue, but the strict, pointed gaze their homeroom teacher was shooting them from the front of the classroom immediately halted his plans. Anything that could've been ticking inside Kuzunoha's head also didn't materialise, as she noticed Mr. Shiyo's stoic glare a second after him. Embarrassed smiles passed between them. It wouldn't be very good for them to get on their teacher's bad side on the first day. The guy didn't seem like someone who tolerated too much in-class chatter.

In any case, he'd be quiet and see what class had in store.

Fortunately, there wasn't much for them to go through on their first day of classes beyond some simple bookkeeping (an overview of the syllabus, what books to read, introductions to teachers, et cetera), and soon enough the school bell had begun to ring, signalling the start of the lunch break. Minoru found himself spending his lunchtime in the classroom with Kuzunoha, catching up on what they had been up to since graduating from middle school. Even if they hadn't exactly been the closest back then (despite their frequent cooperation in science class), he knew her well enough that her familiar presence was pretty relieving to have around. It was just nice talking to someone he already knew. Kuzunoha was really taking a massive weight off his shoulders.

Not that he'd tell her that. She would ask why.

"So you were out of town last month?" he asked, after swallowing a mouthful of rice. "Where'd you go?"

"Tokyo," Kuzunoha (adorned with a hat now that they were out of class) replied. "I was visiting some family."

"In Tokyo? Thought you were from Kobe."

" _Just 'cuz_ I was born in Kobe don't mean I can't have relatives in Tokyo, Matsuoka-kun."

"You've never mentioned them before."

"I am now," she said, placing her chocolate cornet down so she had room to clap her hands together. "Anyway, they actually work for an art museum in Shibuya. I went and saw an exhibition for that famous artist, um _howdya read the kanji again_ ... Hanme?"

"Ichiryusai Madarame," interrupted a new voice. "That's his name."

Minoru nearly jumped out of his chair in surprise.

"Haha sorry, did I scare you?" asked the jovial intruder, having sneaked up on the duo without their notice. He pressed his palms together apologetically, a soft, easy smile gracing his face. "Sorry, sorry. Wasn't my intention."

He was a tall (very much so – Minoru was sure there was at least a head difference between them!) boy with a long and unkempt caramel-blonde mane that curled outwards at the shoulders, which immediately made Minoru wonder if he was a foreigner. Or a delinquent, given the messy state of his uniform (blazer already unbuttoned, shirt collar popped upwards), but that didn't seem congruent at all with the bubbly demeanour!

"That's his name?" asked Kuzunoha, who seemed a lot less worse for wear after being surprised by a giant teenager. She had recovered far more quickly than Minoru.

"Yep, the legendary painter himself!" continued the tall young man, pulling up a chair in front of their desks and plonking himself down onto it. "He's well-known for the diversity in his style, you know? I wanted to see that exhibition of his myself, but I didn't have the time. You're pretty lucky to get a chance to see his work up close."

"Woah, going a wee bit fast there, mate," said Minoru, raising his hands to stop the boy for a second. "Sorry, but we don't know your name …?"

The boy blinked for a moment, before immediately flushing and letting out an embarrassed chuckle. "Ah ah, sorry again, I heard you guys talking about the Madarame exhibition and got caught in the moment."

He enthusiastically pointed back at himself, face overtaken by a grin.

"I'm Suzuki, nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," Minoru replied, his lips curling up into a smile as well. The other boy's exuberance was starting to get pretty infectious. "I'm Matsuoka, and this here's Kuzunoha."

The girl waved.

"Pleasure to meet you, Suzuki-han," she said with a nod.

"Sorry for interrupting your story there." Suzuki's expression was one of contrition as he turned his attentions upon Kuzunoha. He seemed to be pretty much the perfect example of someone who, to use the American expression, wore their heart on their sleeve. "This stuff just interests me a lot."

"Wow, you're sure big on art," Minoru remarked. It was probably pretty premature (or very premature) of him to make such a judgement, but he thought he was actually getting to know the other boy somewhat. He definitely hadn't pegged Suzuki as an artistic type at first, but it was like the Americans said: 'don't judge a book by its cover'. He should've known that his first impressions would fail him. "Do you paint a lot, too?"

Suzuki chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm mostly a sculptor," he admitted, scratching the side of his cheek. "Clay's cheaper than paint, you know? But maybe I can try my hand at it again when club apps open up next week."

"You want to join the Art Club?" asked Kuzunoha, vocalising Minoru's question before he himself could get to it.

"That's right! I heard that the school's liberal with the culture club budgets, so I decided that, hey, if I'm going to join the Art Club anyway, why not take up painting?" Suzuki shrugged in emphasis. "Anyway, what about you two, what clubs you guys planning on taking up?"

That was a doozy of a question. If Minoru was to be perfectly honest with himself, he actually hadn't really thought about clubs at all.

"Don't know," he admitted, at the same time Kuzunoha replied: "Not too sure right now."

The perfect synchronicity of the duo's replies took Suzuki by surprise.

"Ah, well," he said after a second of blinks, not too sure on how to keep the conversation going. "You have a while to think it over, right? It'll be fine."

That was a good idea, and probably for the best. Sure, Minoru had seen a few clubs mentioned in the school brochure before the semester started, but that was essentially the most consideration he'd given to clubs as a whole. He was basically starting from zero with regards to anything about the club life at Noriaki North. No clue at all. Nada. They hadn't really been on his priority list.

"Yeah, we've got a week, no worries."

There was nothing wrong with putting it on the backburner. Clubs were something he could deal with later. Kuzunoha was probably of the same mind.

"So back to your Tokyo trip," Minoru began, glancing over at the aforementioned girl to resume their initial conversation. Except now with a third participant. "What else did you do?"

Kuzunoha smiled, happy to be able to continue her story. "Well, I also visited Ginza …"

The rest of the school day proved to be rather uneventful. Not long after Kuzunoha's tale reached its conclusion, the school bell rang once more, bringing an end to the lunch break and forcing Suzuki to return to his seat. Minoru had been disappointed to see him go, but that couldn't be helped when class was resuming. It wasn't like he could move his new acquaintance to his side of the classroom willy-nilly, so he and Kuzunoha simply returned to the slow grind of their first day in silence (lest the teachers found them to be too chatty again). The remaining classes were similar to those before their break. It was more of the same, consisting of mostly bookkeeping, but much to 1-B's shared disappointment, they were also being given a composition assignment of all things.

He'd known high school was supposed to be harder, but an assignment right from the beginning? That was pretty harsh.

Still, the day had definitely turned out to be a decent start to the semester, even if there wasn't much that happened over the course of it. It was a lot better than he'd initially thought it would be earlier on in the day. He'd reunited with Kuzunoha, and made a new friend in Suzuki. Just those two things already brightened his mood.

Minoru emerged from the school gates (after saying goodbye to the others) a lot more confident and comfortable than he'd been in the morning. It was almost surreal how different things seemed after just going to class. The familiar sights were still disconcerting, but they also just didn't seem to bug him as much anymore.

Maybe he'd stop feeling uncomfortable after a while.

Maybe.

Minoru shook his head, beginning his trek back down the hill towards the station. If things went well, then that would be aces. But he'd have to wait and see.

For now, there was nothing else but to go home.


End file.
